Keeping the Fringe and the arts open to all - Ian Murray
The Edinburgh festivals are in full flow and once again the city has become, as it does every August, a teeming mass of artists and audiences from all corners of the globe, fizzing with talent and creativity.
It is a time of year that evokes personal memories for many: everyone who lives in Edinburgh, and who has visited any of the Festivals has their own unique experience.
For me it calls to mind the summer of 1999, sitting in a draughty Bedlam Theatre auditioning for a presenting job for something called Festival Review.
While I didn’t get the role - my only previous radio experience having been a short-lived stint as a not altogether insightful astrologer on hospital radio - I was hired as their director of operations and programming. And so began a very happy seven years working at the festivals, from which I am still recovering!
Growing up in Wester Hailes, however, the festivals may as well have been on the moon, despite being just a 20-minute bus journey away. What the Fringe meant to me then was that it made those buses run late – very late.
There do remain issues with ensuring the Fringe and the arts more widely are open to all. Making sure that everyone, wherever they live, can participate in and enjoy the arts is something I am determined to ensure both as a local MP and as a DCMS minister.
But none of this should diminish the pride we should take in the fact that the Edinburgh Fringe is the largest performing arts festival in the world. There is not another city in that wouldn’t give their right arm for just a fraction of Edinburgh’s festival success. Don’t tell Andy Burnham, but Manchester isn’t a patch on us.
And while it is true that it makes the buses run late, let us not forget that it is also a massive contributor to the local economy, as I well know from my time managing a pub in Southside.
With Edinburgh’s new Visitor Levy, introduced by the Labour-run council, now in effect, our communities are set to receive a greater share of the prosperity that the Fringe brings.
Last week I attended the opening of the new permanent headquarters of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival Society. The redevelopment was funded in part by a grant of £7m from the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, some of which has also been used to back an artist support fund which enables artists from across the UK to travel to Edinburgh to perform at the Fringe.
As the Fringe turns 80 next year, this is a moment to celebrate the global phenomenon it has become. It is also a moment to reflect on how we can secure its future success and create new opportunities for more people to get involved.
That’s my priority both as the MP for Edinburgh South and as the UKs culture minister.